FMC in the News: 2011

Under current law, any U.S. website posting infringing content has to take the song or movie down at the request of whatever company owns the copyright. But under SOPA, companies could go directly to web hosting companies and require them to take down the entire website — not just individual songs and videos.

As a result, SOPA creates a new opening for corporate command of the Internet. Under SOPA, web hosting companies that take down legitimate websites at the behest of copyright holders would be granted blanket immunity from any liability for losses caused to those legitimate sites. read more

File sharing site MegaUpload has recently been in the sights of both the RIAA and MPAA for hosting copyrighted content. In an ironic (and immensely satisfying) twist, a new video surfaced today from artists whom the RIAA claim to represent that sings the praises of MegaUpload.

Virginia Tech students’ favorite music is increasingly streaming into their ears instantly, and for free — a trend leaving many of their favorite artists with weakening streams of revenue.

A survey conducted by the university’s Communication Network Services in coordination with the Future of Music Coalition shows Hokies are most likely to access music for no cost through YouTube, Pandora and free versions of services such as Spotify and Last.fm.

Tech students’ music preferences will be further explored in a panel discussion tonight that will discuss “The Value of Music.” The event, hosted by CNS in a partnership with the FMC, will be held in Squires Student Center’s Old Dominion Ballroom tonight at 7:30.

Virginia Tech students’ favorite music is increasingly streaming into their ears instantly, and for free — a trend leaving many of their favorite artists with weakening streams of revenue.

A survey conducted by the university’s Communication Network Services in coordination with the Future of Music Coalition shows Hokies are most likely to access music for no cost through YouTube, Pandora and free versions of services such as Spotify and Last.fm.

Tech students’ music preferences will be further explored in a panel discussion tonight that will discuss “The Value of Music.” The event, hosted by CNS in a partnership with the FMC, will be held in Squires Student Center’s Old Dominion Ballroom tonight at 7:30. read more

Everyone’s wallet gets light from time to time. In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Willie Nelson was so broke, he sold the rights to several of his most well-known songs for less than what a full tank of gas would cost today. “I needed fifty dollars!” he later recalled. In hindsight, the idea of letting the rights to “Crazy” go for a paltry ten bucks seems, well, crazy. Unfortunately Congress may be on the verge of making the same sort of short-sighted mistake with its proposed plan to sell off TV broadcast spectrum as a method of raising a small amount of revenue in the short-term. read more

Two weeks ago we talked about the 80s-metal band, Poison, and the recent copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them*. This week, we’ll dive deeper into the copyright infringement issues surrounding the use of sampled music.

Sirius XM Radio set off a flurry of complaints from trade groups and labor unions late last month. It was trying to bypass the standard method of paying for digital streams — through a royalty clearinghouse called SoundExchange — and negotiate directly with record labels.

Sirius’s move was only the latest example of a gradual shift in the financial infrastructure of music. Many companies, from major labels to providers of background music, have been trying to reduce costs and gain control by circumventing the large organizations that have historically processed licenses and royalties. read more

While some groups representing content creators feel they need to hold their nose and stay lockstep with folks like the RIAA and MPAA in support of such obviously bad proposals as E-PARASITE/SOPA, at least some musicians groups are intellectually honest enough to admit that this is a bad, bad bill for creators. The Future of Music Coalition, whom no one can ever claim as being “anti-IP,” “pro-piracy” or (most ridiculous of all) “anti-artist,” has come out with a thoughtful rejection of E-PARASITE/SOPA. The group notes that while it quite frequently agrees with the RIAA/A2IM/AFM and other such groups, on this bill it simply cannot go along. The bill is that bad: read more

Lawmakers who back legislation that would crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites pushed back Wednesday against critics who say that the measures could undermine the growth of new technologies and services on the Internet.

A group of artists held a competing news conference on Wednesday to voice their fears about collateral damage that the bills might cause. Supporters of the piracy legislation tried to allay their fears. … read more

THELEDE: Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm, filed a brief on Thursday asking the Supreme Court to strike down the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency policy as unconstitutionally vague.

The Supreme Court already ruled in the case, upholding the FCC’s fine on Fox for airing expletives during the Billboard Music Awards in 2002 and 2003. But the court only addressed whether the FCC’s fine was arbitrary, and sent the case back to a lower court to determine the policy’s constitutionality. That lower court struck down the FCC’s policy as violating the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has agreed to re-hear the case. read more